Abstract
Movement is a biological need wh ich fro m early childhood plays a fundamental role in proper functional, physiological and mental develop ment. It has been widely shown that independence at the level of action leads to individual's achievement and impacts upon cognitive and affective behaviour, enforcing autonomy and self-esteem. The aim of this paper is to verify the effect of motor activ ity on the develop ment of children's divergent thinking and self-esteem by using an experimental study. This study was carried out within a project investigating creativity, fantasy and movement in nursery school children, and is based on a so-called ludic motor approach. The experiment was designed in the context of laboratory activities , help ing to translate knowledge into skills, within the motif of the Peter Pan adventures film. Referring to educational research methodology, we observed 22 five-year-old children div ided into a working group and a control group. Each experimental session was organized in four stages: contextualization, warm-up, middle stage and cool-down. The children's skills were measured by extensively validated tests, whose results were analy zed by statistical analysis of variance, with a view to ascertaining whether mean scores differ under different conditions. We conclude that the experiment confirms our research hypothesis that motor activity has a positive effect upon divergent thinking and self-esteem.
Highlights
The imp o rt ance o f th e moto r aspect as reg ards th e development of single capabilities already emerges during gestation
There are many catalogue tests, but in making an accurate selection and constantly bearing in mind the object ives and the target audience, we identified the fo llo wing tests which have been internationally validated: 1. Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD)[21]
The factors that showed significant score differences are especially highlighted, but in examin ing the graphs it clearly emerges that the results of the work group are better than those of the control group
Summary
The imp o rt ance o f th e moto r aspect as reg ards th e development of single capabilities already emerges during gestation. A few weeks after b irth the infant displays an interactive synchronicity, a “dance” made up of micro move ments in response to human language. It has been proved that the lev el of in d ep end en ce imp acts up on ach ievemen t and affects cog n it iv e and affect iv e b eh av iou r, fav ou ring g reat er self-esteem, increasing self-efficacy , i.e. the capacity to reach set goals, and offering useful material to build and fortify self-esteem. During its evolut ionary process, the b rain needs to have tactile and moto r exp eriences in o rder to develop those sensory-motor areas that represent the starting point for the development of the superior areas, such as language and
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